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Derry’s Lauren Rever headed to Germany on a Fulbright grant

By HUNTER McGEEUnion Leader CorrespondentJune 16. 2014 8:32PMDERRY — A member of the Boston College Class of 2014, Derry resident Lauren Rever has won a prestigious J. William Fulbright grant.

Rever was recently awarded the coveted post-baccalaureate teaching award given annually to the nation’s best and brightest college students, according to a news release.

Rever graduated from Boston College on May 19, majoring in history and German, the release said. She is a 2010 graduate of Pinkerton Academy, and the daughter of Virginia and Kurt Rever, of Derry.

As part of the Fulbright grant, she plans to travel to Germany to teach.

“Teaching English and American studies in Germany gives me the

chance to combine my two majors at Boston College — history and German — in a really exciting way,” said Rever. “I cannot wait to get back to Germany and explore the culture.”

Rever took German as a language requirement at Boston College. She said she learned to speak it better after traveling to Germany and spending time in the country.

“I’m nowhere near perfect but it was very nice to realize that I can understand the language,” she said.

Along with speaking German and learning about the culture, Rever said she also enjoys history.

While at Boston College, she was a member of the Phi Alpha Theta History Honors Society. She received a summer course grant from the German Academic Exchange Service and completed a History Department honors thesis on popular music in 1950s West Germany.

Rever said she became fascinated with the Cold War and the effect jazz had on the culture at the time. She said jazz first came to Germany in the 1920s, but was interrupted by World War II. But in the 1950s there was a resurgence and jazz became big in Germany, she said.

Among her extracurricular activities, Rever was a video manager for The Gavel; a production assistant for

Boston College Television; and a volunteer with the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.

Following her Fulbright year, Rever plans to pursue graduate study in historic preservation or museum studies.